7 ways an ODC ensures your Data Security

Thanks to the mess, the largest social media Facebook, created by breaching their users’ trust, today people are more aware of their privacy and data protection.

In a global culture where we all depend on talent across borders to do take up the work by hiring freelancers or outsourcing to third-party vendors, here are 7 ways an ODC setup ensures the security of your data, much better than other options.

1. Restricted Physical Access to the Workplace

In a freelancing set-up, the biggest risks you run is about the physical access to the workplace.

Most of the freelancers either work from a corner of their home, or from a public cafe. This means there are absolute chances of unwanted guests and outsiders accessing to the same workplace.

One of my friends was horrified to listen from a freelancer that all his work was lost when his dog jumped over the laptop, which fell off and crashed.

Thanks to ODC, the physical access to the workplace is always restricted, and no guests are allowed inside. Access cards are allocated to people for authorization, and strict rules are followed about who can access which areas of the office. In some cases, you can have your own dedicated rooms/floors where no other persons except the team you hired, has the access to.

2. Restricted access to the Workstation

Did you ever searched a ‘freelancer’ in google images? Yep! Most of them show you how they are working from home, lying on their bed, with a kid or pet around!

Freelancers use their personal laptops to do the work, in most cases near their kids. And this poses one of the greatest risks for your business data. As the laptop is a personal one, it is often have a family sharing, meaning that the kid will be using it in free time to watch movies or play games.

How can you assure that a toddler does not press (even if by mistake) the Big DELETE button when the mom/ dad is not around?

As the ODC setup is a professional setup, the infrastructure is owned by the company and thus the physical access to the workstations and laptop is limited to the authorized person with legitimate credentials.

3. Access restriction to External Drives / Media

Another big threat, when you are relying on an individual to use their personal systems for your business work, is the risk of exchange of information using external media/ drive like USB sticks, Compact Discs or External Storage devices.

In an ODC setup, a strict security policy is used to restrict access of any external media device to the workstations, and the ports are disabled by the administrator. This ensures that your data can not be leaked or transfer through external device. Any data transferred otherwise is always logged in the system and can be tracked easily.

4. Access restriction to Internet

Did you ever asked a freelancer which is their favorite place to work from?

No surprise, if most of them answer a Starbucks, McDonald, or Peter Donuts. In the freelancing world, they are called as cafe offices. You may think that we already talked about the risks they pose with unwanted guests accessing the same workplace, but I am pointing towards something even scary.

Most freelancers like to work from cafes for one reason – free Wi-fi. But what they eventually forget is that ‘nothing comes for free’. These free wi-fi zones are public networks and your project data is flowing through an insecure public network which is a prime target for hackers, isn’t that scary?

Being a professional setup, an ODC always have a secured Internet connection, mainly with high-speed leased line, with hardware and software firewalls in place, to ensure that all the data communication happens through the safe channel.

5. Anti-virus & Firewall security

In a race of getting new projects one after another, freelancers and outsourcing companies, both are pressurized under one common trait – the price war with a competition.

And this leads freelancers and outsorcing companies to adopt short-term cost-saving methods that may have long term consequences, such as using a free or low cost anti-virus system.

With a professionally designed security policy, an ODC setup always hasupdated and upgraded anti-virus software, along with regular security audits to ensure that the data handled is secure and safe.

6. Data Backup

Data loss can be chilling and has serious financial implications. From an employee clicking an infected email attachment to the physical damage of the system, anything can result in losing your data stored.

According to global statistics 93% of companies who fail to recover their lost data, go out of business within one year.

Thanks to the data recovery and backup policies implemented in an ODC setup, your data will always be safe with a copy stored safely on a local server or remote data centre, depending on your agreements.

7. Legal Contract for Data Handling

When it comes to data handling, an ODC is the most reliable option to work with, as your ODC will have a legal contract with Not Discloser Agreement (NDA) with employees, Data handling and access policy, and Handover / Destruction Rules.

This ensures that your data is handled safely before and during the operations, and is destructed safely with a complete wipe-out once the work tenure is over. The ODC is legally bound to not sell your data to any third-party.

Conclusion

From restricting the access to physical location and workstations, to implement highly secure data protection policies with a legally binding contract, Offshore Delivery Center (ODC) is the most secure and safe model to adopt while working with remote teams.